As my inquiry last week generated significant discussion both within the forum and also several private side conversations I thought I would summarize my own conclusions recognizing I am of course biased on the subject.
1) Few people are arguing there is no role for business planning in the business world. However several scholars do seem to believe that it is a question of timing and purpose. To many, business planning is not seen as a tool to encourage experimentation and innovation, but rather supporting the management of ongoing enterprises.
2) Some expressed concern about the apparent lack of extant research regarding the efficacy of design thinking and lean startup. Others submitted examples (most of which you all received in the chain) of some early work in this space. One colleague expressed the difference between business planning being indicative of causation while lean startup is reflective of effectuation. I too have always seen the lean startup model as a practitioner approach to operationalizing effectuation.
One question that wasn't resolved for me related to this topic, what are the best indicators to compare the relative success of business plans vs lean startup for startups? What is the optimal metric of success for business plans and lean startups? I am not convinced the metric of "success" as a model of startup is even the same between the two disparate models.
Finally, one colleague suggested I check out what Jeff Dyer has had to say on this topic of business plans versus lean startup and how MBA students are not trained to be innovators. He, of course, is not the first to make this claim. I heard Guy Kawasaki (who actually has an MBA) make this claim a decade ago when he said he subtracts I think $500k in valuation from a startup for every MBA on the team. I reached out to Jeff who was kind enough to send two items for me.
The first is an article he cowrote in Forbes summarizing a 10-year research project on innovation (which was reported in the Innovator's Method). They make a compelling case (at least for me) in the 3 minute video and the article that business plans are less valuable in the concept stage than models which encourage experimentation. I should note that in personal communication Jeff insisted that he is not arguing that there is zero value in aspects of business planning.
Cheers,
Boyd
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